This is the first in a three-part series that explores the past, present and future of World of Warcraft electronic sports. ...
This is the first in a three-part series that explores the past, present and future of World of Warcraft electronic sports.
World of Warcraft was founded in 2004 and has grown from the imagination of Warcraft III fans who live their dreams in the vastness of Azeroth to a global phenomenon that has proven itself as a massive online game multiplayer mode. the most popular in the world. world
In 2019, World of Warcraft remains the king of the MMO scene. After avoiding countless attempts to conquer his throne, he remained strong and kept going. While it has not always been easy, and the game has certainly not been as it was at the height of its fame, it continues to retain significant cultural relevance.
When it comes to electronic sports, 2019 may be one of the most significant years in the history of the game. With the 15th year of World of Warcraft, the competitive scene continues to grow. The future looks promising with the improvement of the community-financed prize money.
This is where this series of articles comes into play. We'll look at the three main aspects of the title's esport efforts: the past, the present, and the future, and what that all means.
The base of something big, forged on a bloody battlefield
One thing that is important at World of Warcraft is that when it started in 2004, there was a lack of a real "player against player" aspect. Of course, players could kill each other, and they often did, but it was mostly boring or fun.
The real idea for PvP would not reach World of Warcraft before Patch 1.4, almost six months after the game launched in the United States. Possibly, when Blizzard added a PvP honor system. Sure, Blizzard has the Gurubashi Arena for the patch from 1.2. December 2004 added, which gave players a reason to take part in PvP, but the introduction of a real leaderboard system gave the players something to expect. Fortunately for PvP players, waiting for the next addition was short-lived.
The introduction of the Battlegrounds 1.5 patch not only gave fans a reason to fight, but also a place to do it. Players in groups of 10 for Warsong Gulch (Capture the Flag) and 40 for Alterac Valley (a large-scale PvP / PvE hybrid) would fight the opposition faction. At the end of each week, players were ranked based on the number of Honor Points they earned compared to other members of their faction, with the highest ranks receiving PvP armor, mounts, and weapons specifically.
It would take another year and later to be expanded before the basics of electronic sports from World of Warcraft take shape. Patch 2.0.1 would add arena battles with the seasons and a renewed honor system to the game. In the arena, groups of two, three or five (with three versus three becoming the competition standard) fought on a much smaller battlefield with an MMR system and equipment record. Teams can choose a name and logo and compete against other teams, winning ranks and unique items. Blizzard would continue to add new seasons and arenas to the game over the next few years. Things started to change in 2007 and Blizzard finally introduced electronic sports to World of Warcraft.
The beginning of a 12-year history.
In 2007 Blizzard recorded electronic sport in the form of three against three arenas in its annual fan show BlizzCon. A trend started that has continued since then. Blizzard added other events for several days, including events prior to BlizzCon. The exhibition, like Warcraft III and StarCraft, is the latest event in the World of Warcraft esports calendar. At BlizzCon 2007, Blizzard donated $ 40,000 to the finalist, and the competition was eventually won by MoB Turtle Beach.
Blizzard would also host a number of events around the world, including the now-disappearing international invitational events that hosted World of Warcraft's esports function at the Paris event in 2008. During the event, Blizzard organized a number of professionals and occasional tournaments for the participants. Blizzard has also worked with ESL over the years, the organizer who supports Blizzard in organizing European events. To continue helping Blizzard at events in Australia.
Blizzard always seemed to have electronic sports as a minor component of World of Warcraft. It was something there was, but he still felt disconnected from the main game, a kind of BlizzCon sideline for those who really liked this aspect of the game. As the popularity of electronic sports increased over the years, World of Warcraft's competitive scenes have increased and prices and support have increased accordingly. We should wait for 2017-2018 for the scene to really start gaining strength in the general population, and when 2019 arrives, Blizzard will eventually join its esports trouble with the game's players .
When Blizzard tried something different
From 2010 to 2013, Blizzard would do something different when it comes to BlizzCon. 2010 was the first attempt to bring the raid experience to BlizzCon when Blizzard staged the # 1 Paragon guild to battle multiple bosses from previous raids. The series of boss waves took place outside the city of Orgrimmar in the Horde, with a live audience that cheered them on and a team that commented on the events. It was an interesting idea and Blizzard would return the following year in a more refined and competitive format.
In 2011, our first look at the First World Cup was real, we just didn't know it at the time. Two guilds, Blood Legion and Vodka, would compete on stage to complete the Firelands 25-man raid first. Blizzard would repeat the 2013 event in which Method would compete against Midwinter. The clip above shows the beginning of something else in World of Warcraft's electronic sport, but that wasn't the case. Blizzard would not restore the format in subsequent BlizzCon iterations.
At that time, competitive raids were left to the community to use on the forums. Reddit users are constantly updating guild leaderboards or waiting for in-game announcements to find out who killed the boss first. In 2017, however, Blizzard would revive the format later.
Blizzard builds the second pillar of World of Warcraft electronic sports
Welcome to the Mythic Dungeon Invitational (MDI), the second pillar of electronic sports in World of Warcraft. With the release of World of Warcraft: Legion, Blizzard changed one of the basic elements of WoW: the dungeon system has been given a new mode. In these more difficult versions, players would purchase keys to make the dungeon more difficult, with "affixes" (see debuffs) that apply when players exceed certain thresholds, with a maximum of four active affixes once they reach level 10.
Players fight for goals before a timer runs out, and a speed-based loot is assigned. Teams that complete the cornerstone in time will receive a new key for another higher level dungeon. These additions would add a variety of things, from increasing the density of the crowds in a package to creating pools of blood when an enemy is killed, to those who upset the crowds by hitting 20% of PV.
In 2017 and 2018, Blizzard brought the MDI to BlizzCon. The best teams from Europe, China, Asia Pacific and America would travel to BlizzCon to fight on stage and become MDI champions. The two teams on stage fought in the same dungeon with the same additional combination, using the composition of five men they wanted (with the rules for post-game changes). The winner was the team that killed the last boss and achieved a clear 100% completion percentage awarded for killing a number of non-boss mobs in a dungeon. MDI focuses less on the PvP side of electronic sports than on the aspect of "fast games" or "speed running" of other titles. While MDI isn't for everyone, it always seemed to be a more natural environment for World of Warcraft, a game that's essentially a PvE experience.
In 2019, MDI would change its name to Mythic Dungeon International, and as the event headed toward the new World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth, it won a seasonal format like the WoW Arena Championship (AWC) with a The BlizzCon finale ending Season.
It would also be negligent not to mention the community events from Mythic + Keystone Masters, those of Cirranor, the 2018 MDI champion and member of the Excel Esports Arena team Kjell's Angels (later renamed Excels Angels) were called. Shirr as executive producer and Method Darrie as deputy producer also joined Cirranor. The Keystone Masters continue to this day and we will play them in more detail in our second article in the series.
In summary
For a game that is 15 years old, keep it short when reviewing its history. We've greatly simplified and condensed what happened, not to mention some of the esports and streaming personalities that World of Warcraft has produced over the years, from Sodapoppin to Rekful. The game's competitive past certainly influenced its present, and since 2019 is the most important sporting year so far, we also bet that it will continue to grow in the future.
In our next article we will see the current climate of World of Warcraft in electronic sports and the four pillars on which it is based. We'll see what changes Blizzard made in 2019, how Method and Red Bull added a new pillar, and how the community created its own scene from an aspect of the title that is often overlooked.
